"Russellpalooza" wasn't your typical family get-together.
Recently a group of nine 30 and 40-somethings gathered at a Melbourne pub.
Despite them all being related, some were meeting each other for the first time.
All are the biological children of Darren Russell, a prominent Far North Queensland health professional who was a sperm donor during his medical school days in Victoria during the 1980s.
Guy Hampshire, a 38-year-old intensive care paramedic, only discovered he was donor-conceived in May after receiving a letter from the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority.
"It broadly said, 'We have some information about your birth, you should either call this number or speak to your parents,'" he said.
"So I called the number.
"The man I thought was my dad passed away in October and mum — I figured she had 38 years to give me the information and hadn't been forthcoming, so I might as well go to the other source."
Mr Hampshire made an application to connect with his biological father, which led to meeting Dr Russel and ultimately his new extended family.
"The first conversation with Darren, but also with all my other siblings — it's kind of like a job interview," Mr Hampshire said.
"It's all about information acquisition so that you can try and piece together what your identity actually is and see what parts align with the people you're genetically entwined with versus the people that raised you."
Throughout his childhood, Mr Hampshire questioned whether he was adopted based on significant height and complexion differences to his parents.
His recent journey of self-discovery has helped make sense of many unanswered questions.
"It's been really bizarre, but it's quite comforting to sit across from someone who looks like you," Mr Hampshire said.
"It's put me at ease, because we share some very similar mannerisms — even just the way we walk is very similar.
"We all have a unique stance for when we get our photos taken, which I've started terming 'Russellstance.'"
The right to know
A government-run donor conception database is set to be established in Queensland after a parliamentary inquiry found people's knowledge of where they came from outweighed protecting the privacy of sperm or egg donors.
Mr Hampshire supports the recommendation made this week by the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee for donor-conceived people to have access to information about their donor, donor siblings and medical records when they turn 18.
He believes that information has important health implications.
"If I link to my career, when we talk about heart attacks, one of the biggest prognostic indicators for early heart disease is a familial linkage," Mr Hampshire said.
"So if you know that you have that familial linkage, you can then monitor it better and give yourself a better outcome or be less likely to have a heart attack at a young age."
While donor conception was once thought to be best kept secret, Mr Hampshire said times had changed and that parents, especially, had an obligation to inform their children.
"Over time, the evidence suggests that the younger you tell people, the better outcomes they have, particularly in terms of mental health and self-identity," he said.
"I think even if I'd been told at 20 I would be better off than being finding out at 38.
"And definitely being told by your caregiver who loves you is probably a better way to find out from a faceless entity on the phone or the letter in the registered mail."
Mr Hampshire recommended people seeking advice visit the Donor Conceived Australia website.
Dr Russell, who himself only recently learned of his nine offspring after taking a DNA test, also supports the recommendation and based on progressions in societal views and technology.
"It was almost a bit of a shameful secret many years ago — it's not anymore, but it was," he said.
"In the era of consumer DNA testing, where you can just order one of these test kits, it arrives, you do it, and a few weeks later you've got emails telling you who you're related to around the world, there's no real anonymity anymore.
"People were promised anonymity back in the day, but technology has moved on so far that it doesn't exist."
